The Million Cat Challenge

Shelters today are saving more cats than ever before. Can they really save 1 million more in five years?

The Million Cat Challenge is a joint project of the Maddie’s® Shelter Medicine Program at the University of Florida and the UC Davis Koret Shelter Medicine Program, two of the premier shelter medicine programs in the world, with financial support from Maddie’s Fund®. It was founded because we believe that shelters absolutely can achieve that by utilizing the strategies developed by innovative shelters and animal welfare groups to provide proven practices that are already saving cats’ lives all over North America.

Those programs are best summed up in the five initiatives of the Million Cat Challenge:

Not every initiative is right for every shelter, but there’s something there for shelters of every size, with every budget, and in every type of community. What’s more, shelters taking part in the Challenge have faced the same obstacles as other shelters have, and the Challenge makes their valuable, real-world experience available to every Challenger.

That magic seems to be working. In less than two years of its launch, Challenge shelters had saved more than 500,000 cats!

More than 400 shelters are part of the Challenge, from Alaska to Florida, from Prince Edward Island to Hawaii.

We want your shelter to be part of this historic movement, and utilize all the knowledge, experience, data, and support the Million Cat Challenge has to offer.

If your shelter wants to be part of this historic movement, enroll today!

Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences

As part of both the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences and the Academic Health Center, Veterinary Medicine is dedicated to advancing animal, human and environmental health through teaching, research, extension and patient care.

UF Veterinary Forensic Sciences

The University of Florida's online graduate certificate program in Veterinary Forensic Sciences is provided by the University of Florida, College of Veterinary Medicine in partnership with the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA).